A new try

This last week when I was in Minneapolis, I had a couple of conversations about blogs. I know a few people who have blogs, but who don’t update very often (like me), and we talked about how we get writer’s block, basically, about being profound and/or witty and that keeps us from posting anything. (We also talked about how we essentially write blog posts in our heads, and then by the time we sit down at the computer, we don’t feel the necessity of typing it all out because we’ve already dealt with whatever it was by writing it in our heads.) However, I find that the blogs that I enjoy reading the most are not necessarily the witty or profound ones, but the ones that present snapshots of daily life. And yet I can’t bring myself to write about “what I did today” most of the time. I’d like to change that, so today I present for you: what I did today.

I’m still trying to get over jetlag and get back on a normal sleeping schedule. It’s going better than it did in January, probably because I’m actually trying now. I still didn’t fall asleep until 3am yesterday. I had my alarm set for 9:30, so that I could get up and run some errands in the morning. Yeah, that didn’t so much happen. But I was up and showered before noon, so that’s a sort of progress, I suppose.

I walked into Beeston to the stationer’s so that I could get a plastic organizer box for my kitchen cupboard (perfect size for the Easy Mac and microwave Hamburger Helper packets that I brought back from the States) and an expanding file for things like bank statements in a probably futile attempt to keep myself organized. We’ll see how well that works. I’m trying to treat this summer term as a sort of reset for me, organization/work –wise. I am hopeful that my dissertation will be a little bit easier than this last essay writing session because of it. Hey, there’s always hope. The expanding file was the last main thing I needed to finish my room clean-up/organization of yesterday. There’s still a few little things, but that was the main thing. I still need to redo my makeup drawer and sort my books. (The Arts Graduate Centre on campus is now an official bookcrossing point, so any of the books that I have that I know I’m not going to get around to reading or don’t want anymore might as well go there.)

Then this afternoon I met a friend for a wander. She’s headed back to the States for her Ph.D. in less than a month, so we’re running out of time that we can spend together. We walked around Wollaton Park – the first time in years I’ve been in the park and the first time I’ve ever really walked around it. We went into the house, too - another first for me. I wouldn’t mind going back sometime (especially since it’s free). Then we came back here and transferred files - I have some movies on my hard drive that she wanted, and vice versa.

By the time I got back inside after walking her to the exit(where I live is kind of a maze, and all the buildings look alike), my flatmates had gotten the TV in our kitchen working for the first time since January. So I actually made some dinner and ate in the kitchen with my flatmates for once. It was good, but our kitchen is really too small to make that feasible for very long. Other than that, I’ve just been overly checking the internet (as usual) and watching American sitcoms on E4.